Shadowrun Returns Review: Shadowran to the shops, but now It's back.

Shadowrun Returns Review: Shadowran tthe shops, but now It's back. 



Title: Shadowrun Returns  
Initial Release: 25th July 2013 
Platforms: PC, iOS, Android 
Engine: Unity (Not that it matters much, an engine does not give an instant tell to the quality of a game). 

I bought Shadowrun on a whim, pure and simple, I was perusing an online store- I believe it was Humble Bundles' store- and I noticed there was a sale then I saw this interesting looking game called Shadowrun (I also bought a game called VA-11 HALL-A: A cyberpunk Bartender game, it's what you think and it's great). After I looked at the game some more I became very intrigued, and I remembered it mentioned on the Co-Optional podcast, the game boasted a gripping tale of characters and magic and Sci-fi. "Magic has returned." Oh really? " Elves, trolls, orks and dwarves walk among us." I'm on! "unique cyberpunk-meets-fantasy." Oh, just get into my computer now! I seemed to cry. At this point the only experience I had with the Shadowrun universe was the 2007 Xbox 360 game; which I remember being a FPS multiplayer game much like Halo, when I first saw the game I thought it was Crackdown for whatever reason- it was not- I loved Crackdown, all in all I remember that game being pretty shit. Basically, if you don't know, Shadowrun was first made as a tabletop RPG and had a few spin offs from there, including a NES and Mega Drive game, and Shadowrun Returns is the first real Shadowrun game for PC; which is bizarre because PC seems like the perfect place for this series, aside from the tabletop game of course. The series has also spawned a few novel adaptions, by a few I mean a lot, one of which I am currently reading.  

(most 90s cover)

I give all this, frankly, brief and under-detailed overview of the series because this game kind of expects you to know quite a few details already, this is a game felt like it was made for fans of Shadowrun; yet, it is not completely inaccessible for people who have no experience what so ever, not having any experience at all is better than having played the Xbox Shadowrun game. I also wanted to share this information because I believe it helps to understand why I fell in love with the world and lore of Shadowrun even though I never played the tabletop games. (I've never played any tabletop RPG but I do want to, it looks like fun). 

Story 
I feel it would be prudent and make the most sense to start with the story as this is a heavily story driven game. FYI, this will be more of an overall view of Shadowrun as a whole; also, keep in mind I still haven't finished this game, for reasons we'll get onto.  
Honestly, it's kind of hard to give a quick-ish rundown of Shadowrun as it is a really well written history, that granted I don't know that much of, that has been developed over a quite a few years and just keeps getting expanded. Seriously this world has a full-on history. Basically, as I mentioned before: Shadowrun is a part fantasy world- with Elves, Orks, Trolls, Dwarves, Werewolves, Ghouls, and so on- yet, it's also part Cyberpunk- with hackers (known as Deckers), the Matrix, Neon lights, VR drug things, drones, Mega Corporations, so on and so forth. It's this strange blend that works so well in a lore and gameplay wise that makes this world so special, if you removed either of these elements it'd honestly just be another generic Cyberpunk world or just another Fantasy world but putting them together just works so well. The premise of the actual game is simple: You are a Sadowrunner (a criminal who works for anyone who will pay, usually Megecorps will hire and then use them, by use I mean 'fuck them over') and you get contacted by an old friend, a fellow Shadowrunner, who informs you that he is dead and he wants you to bring his killer to justice and then he will reward you with a shit load of Nuyen (the currency). Overall, the story is enjoyable, most the characters are interesting, the dialogue is well written and the story makes me want to finish it, so, why haven't I?  

Gameplay 
Where the story makes this game enjoyable the gameplay really brings it down, it's flat, 2D (literally but I don't mean in that way) and just feels like a hassle that gets in-between the interesting story bits. Let's start from the beginning. At the start of the game it introduces you to the mechanics, not all that well; I have an ongoing vendetta with game tutorials at this point, and it shows you this big upgrade tree, not a tree, and says you can be whatever you want and you can do what you want. What to be a decker? Do it. Want to be a Shaman? Do it. This is all within reason of course, you can't be a magic decker because the more machine you get the more you lose contact with your magic side. But, the game basically says it's going back to what RPGs used to be like, the days when if you didn't want to fight you didn't have to, you could sneak around, you could talk people out of it if you have enough stats, you could pay them off, or you could just blow their head off. It felt like a true play your own way game. At the beginning. As you progress fights become more frequent and unavoidable, dialogue choices feel like they matter even less and the game just gets more linear. Now, don't get me wrong linear games aren't inheritably bad games, there are plenty of linear games that are better than open world games, I would say Portal is a linear game and it is a hundred times better than say No Man's Sky or the Far Cry games, because of its' writing and interesting puzzles. Yet, I feel Shadowrun Returns really suffers from being so linear, the game feels like it wants to be like the early Fallout games, it wants people to choose their own way but they can't, the game has chosen for them. I should explain what the combat is, since it's so necessary and unavoidable. It's X-Com, but watered-down. You have a party, maximum, of four and they have action points and you move them on a grid and make them attack people or use items or skills. My problem is it's so basic and just feels so flat and I was led to believe that I might be able to avoid at least some of it, but you can't and it sucks because I wanted to play a smart Decker with so much charisma you could talk your way out of an execution. I would also like to say that: 
  1. When not in combat I should be able to move freely around without having to control every single party member and using action points. To clarify, when you enter a building or area with enemies you can't move freely (you still use action points and turns) until every motherfucker in that area code is dead. 
  1. Party members are useless, there are no permanent party members, instead you hire other runners to help you which is a good idea because it makes sense in terms of Shadowrun, however it also means you can never customize, level up or give your party any equipment. (to be fair you don't technically level up either you just get Karma at points that seem very random and then spend it on skills. In retrospect, I can't help but wonder why it's called Karma, it makes no sense, why not just call it EXP? Or nodes? Or anything that sounds better than Karma.) My point is that the characters are all fixed at one point, so, what is the point? They could have at least made it so that the more you use certain people the more they strengthen but if they die on a mission they're gone forever.  
  1. Deckers, too, are useless. In a game like this where it's already established that just killing people as fast as possible if the best stratagem, one has to wonder what the point of a decker is. They're support and anything they can do can be done a lot faster with a fully loaded shotgun and a few grenades. The Matrix, at first is a cool interesting place that seems so different but then you realise it's the same as the normal combat but blue, for example in the book it mentions the matrix take shape as a Victorian mansion with a Cerberus-like guard dog. In the game, it's generic blue.  
There are many things in the game I find useless like most the skills, especially the speech ones that appear once and then are never used again, I think this is because the game wants to be open, like Fallout 2, yet is stuck on this linear track. Again; linear games aren't bad, it's just when they're built like an open game that's meant to be explored and reasoned with but forgets to open the game up. 

Presentation 
After that text dump of complaints this is going to be quite small, it's like MGSV where I've blown my load quite early on and now I haven't got much to say. You can tell I'm padding, from the way I just made a MGS comparison and not even to the game I'm talking about, and it's just so I can make this section look like an actual paragraph; and so that I can reach two thousand words, most of all I'm trying to make it the sentence, 'The visuals here a quite nice, it's very neon and very Cyberpunk and the levels are made quite nicely, though not all of them are that interesting.' Seem longer than it actually is. Because, all I can really say is that I am a fan of how this game looks, it's quite nice. 

Shadowrun returns summed up for me would be: I adore the world, the story makes me want to finish the game, the gameplay makes me want to not finish this game and the visuals are quite nice and fit the dirty city quite well. I don't know if I would recommend this game, maybe the other two games are more enjoyable, I hope, but if anything; I would recommend the book (as of right now I have only read the first book 'into the shadows' and would recommend that as a way to get into Shadowrun). Although anything is better than the Xbox game. I will say if the new CD Projekt Red game turns out like a proper, old RPG (the ones where you can actually choose what you want to do) I will instantly love it, I mean it is Cyberpunk so I already do.  

Being simultaneously pulled in and wanting to quit a game you're both impressed by and are disappointed by/10 

PS. I didn't make two thousand words. 

https://twitter.com/JudgeFish PS if you would like to support this shit, you can: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5971321 but don't feel obliged. 

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